Ode to Guilt

Tranquilise your soul
So you may grow old
In calmed conscience

Find a way to forget
The shame, the pain
Remorse and regret

The still of your dusk
Calls back the voices
Thought to be forgot

Small lies and deceit
Cruel words, vanities
An oversight, a fight

Selfishness, jealousy
Misguided assistance
Revenge, rage, fallacy

Every Pandora’s Box
Far inside every mind
Opens up in this time

This quiet grayish time
As you await your end
Wondering about him

What he will bring you
When he finally comes
As you wait and worry

This is the time when
You will see your guilt
Writ inside your mind

Show plays every night
Same old show of woe
A procession of shame

An error becomes a sin
Inescapable, relentless
Standing on your grave

When the mind is quiet
You will know your guilt
And thus know yourself

But not before.

Reviews

[ice]

Sheesh! I thought I would come here and read a poem in your back pages, leave a nice review, that might cheer you up, and help you a little to get out of your funk..But reading this poem made me a little funky..lol, not really, what is, is, and this poem is, and says the truth, even if that truth is hard to face..you have done the poets job well...and that is to have no mercy on your subject, or reader.

[IComeAnon]

Content wise, I loved this piece. 'Show plays every night/ Same old show of woe/ A procession of shame' this line was wonderful. Guilt really is like watching on stage your lowest of lows.

I also like the way it reads. The occasional rhyming coupled with the meter lent a feeling like a small shrug every now and then. I felt it did well to add to the overall feel.

[Truman S. Booth]

Incredible. The structure in itself is amazing, for it must have taken time and thought. There's no way the lines in each stanza are nearly exactly the same length without your conscious design. Another splendid ode.

And what a strong message: you can try to distract your mind from the guilt, and it will work, but when it comes time to quiet the mind, there is no escape.

[VIK]

g8 piece.....

[.]

. oh wow ! ... but of course ... silence IS the key ... to the lock of NOISE ...